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what is the shortest possible number of in game days to legitimately beat this game?

unavailableunavailable Member Posts: 268
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
In other words, not a speed run. Main quests done, all major areas of the city and surrounding areas explored etc. I suspect the simpler characters would be best for this. Kensais with throwing weapons, an archer or two, a cleric/mage and skald. Optional sorcerer, and I think wand of monster summoning with it's 50 charges is absolutely essential to keeping combat painless enough to be managed by rings of regeneration.

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  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    edited December 2017
    I think you need to define your ambition a bit more, e.g.
    - do you have to explore all areas or just some of them?
    - is exploration all that's needed or do encounters need to be triggered?
    If I were attempting that (and I'm sure I've done so, though I don't remember the results), I would be trying to minimise the time as much as possible while avoiding any cheats or exploits - but not introducing additional restrictions on what content has to be explored.

    If you're wanting to minimise time I would have thought a solo character would be far better than a party (unless your definition precludes that). You'll want little or no resting, so a character with stealth would seem a good bet and a high constitution will help avoid fatigue penalties - a dwarven fighter/thief would probably do a good job.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Grond0 said:

    I think you need to define your ambition a bit more, e.g.
    - do you have to explore all areas or just some of them?
    - is exploration all that's needed or do encounters need to be triggered?
    If I were attempting that (and I'm sure I've done so, though I don't remember the results), I would be trying to minimise the time as much as possible while avoiding any cheats or exploits - but not introducing additional restrictions on what content has to be explored.

    If you're wanting to minimise time I would have thought a solo character would be far better than a party (unless your definition precludes that). You'll want little or no resting, so a character with stealth would seem a good bet and a high constitution will help avoid fatigue penalties - a dwarven fighter/thief would probably do a good job.

    A solo Shadowdancer who only fights when absolutely necessary would proably be able to finish the fastest. To get the most benefit a half-orc or dwarf would really shine with the 19 constitution fatigue bonus. Initially you'd have to spend some time exploring and taking advantage of the early easy quests to get some levels but after that it should be a cake-walk (especially with Zhurlong's Boots and the Shadow Armour).
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    The Duchal Palace fight is the one you need to worry about the most. Pretty much you need to tank the fight or confuse the lot of them.
    I did a thief run (noreload) but that fight was really rough.
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    That is where my pacifist run ended. Got there killing only Mulahey and Davaeorn, and not striking any other blows (nor passive-aggressive spells like sleep). Could not figure the Ducal Palace out though. Frustrated I could not pick-pocket Daevorn, and bluff Mulahey, but the game was not set up for quite such a varied play style.

    I am terrible at forum searches for the original question, but I remember one of our erstwhile noreloaders took on this challenge, which included finding the optimal world-map routes to minimize journey times. IIRC, they played solo, relied heavily on wands, and completed somewhere in the 17-19 day range.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    lroumen said:

    The Duchal Palace fight is the one you need to worry about the most. Pretty much you need to tank the fight or confuse the lot of them.
    I did a thief run (noreload) but that fight was really rough.

    A thief type character can increase their chances of success by:
    - laying traps ahead of the battle (though you won't want to delay by resting for this challenge).
    - taking horror as a Bhaal ability.
    - charming the Flaming Fist to fight in a more co-ordinated fashion.
    - charming the dopplegangers while still in noble form (though again that would mean a delay).
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,002
    when doing gold piece runs ( uncovering ALL the fog of war on every single map and doing every single quest in the game, except for the ones where you have to give an item back - need to sell those items for moneys - ) the best i've done was around the 170 day mark, going to and back from werewolf island really cranks up the time ( its like 2 or 3 weeks per trip )

    when i did runs where i wasn't worried about gold pieces and not about the fog of war and only going to areas with unique encounters/items i think my best was around 60 days

    if i play a solo game on INSANE i think i was able to do it in the 40s

    if i play a solo game on story mode ( basically a speed run grabbing all the tomes ) i think i've done it in less than 30 days
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    The exact details depend on the terms of the run. Mods and glitches can speed up the game even if you're not doing sequence breaks like in a speed run, and the game version can also play a role. If you're going full vanilla, you can duplicate Oils of Speed to zoom around the map, and if you're playing EE v2.0-v2.3, then you can duplicate almost anything--unless you're not willing to accept glitches. You can also use the Reform Party trick to remove fatigue effects on party members.

    But the basic principle would be that you'd choose a party that did not need to rest to function properly. Create a Fighter/Thief for basic thieving duties, a Skald to use wands and buff the party, and everyone else can just be a fighter of some sort. Archers come to mind.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited December 2017
    Grond0 said:

    lroumen said:

    The Duchal Palace fight is the one you need to worry about the most. Pretty much you need to tank the fight or confuse the lot of them.
    I did a thief run (noreload) but that fight was really rough.

    A thief type character can increase their chances of success by:
    - laying traps ahead of the battle (though you won't want to delay by resting for this challenge).
    - taking horror as a Bhaal ability.
    - charming the Flaming Fist to fight in a more co-ordinated fashion.
    - charming the dopplegangers while still in noble form (though again that would mean a delay).
    At the level I got there I had two traps (because I priories find traps to get through cloakwood) and no points in set traps making them a gamble at best.
    Sleep was one of my best friends and charming flaming fist I did consider at one of the runs. Those are the best tools next to wands.
    Charming nobles can be harmful because the EEs do not always detect properly how many doppelgangers there are and you can botch the encounter altogether.
    Otiluke's is a big mistake in the fight because it hostiles the dukes in the EEs.

    Edit from the noreload thread.
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899953/#Comment_899953

    It was 19 days, 12 hours. You beat me by some travel difference here and there :). The routes we took are wildly different.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    semiticgod said:

    Has anyone noticed that @Grond0 is seriously good at this game?

    Not really. Many people, including yourself, know the game as a whole better than me. If I have a speciality it would be micro-manipulation of things like positioning and timing of attacks in the round, but as far as BG1 goes I'm mainly relying on having done it so many hundreds of times before :D. As I almost always only play no-reload (and my definition of that includes not experimenting with how to complete encounters outside a run) that base of knowledge gets thinner the further into the game I get - which has cost me a number of runs that have got up to Mel, but failed because I couldn't remember exactly what happened at that stage :'(.

    lroumen said:

    Charming nobles can be harmful because the EEs do not always detect properly how many doppelgangers there are and you can botch the encounter altogether.

    I've only done it a few times, but I think @harpagornis makes that a regular part of his LOB/SCS challenges and I don't think he's come across any technical problems with it.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    I think I remember it fully now after some breakfast. If you charm a noble and kill him then the Flaming Fist and dukes go hostile on you.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    Right. That makes sense. To make it work you need to wait until the charm wears off and the noble transforms into a doppleganger (as that's something like 14 hours it's not a great tactic if you're trying to minimise game time).
  • HarpagornisHarpagornis Member Posts: 1,658
    Like @Grond0 said before: The Noble-charming in the Palace Ambush (SCS!) works perfectly fine. In nearly all of my runs i only charm the Mage as he is the one that gave me most trouble in the past. Charm him - rest once - charm some guards - call in summons - buff up - destroy.

    Once the rest is dead i usually park the Mage-Noble on top of the eastern stairs and place my summons and/or guards around him so he cannot escape. Works like a charm! ;)

    This also makes sure at least Belt will survive as he will run far away from Sarevok once the Mage died!!

    P.S. I never ever had technical problems with this tactic. Just make sure not to attack the Noble before he transformed. :D
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